This paper examines the influence of parental education on shaping children’s STEM identity and achievement using Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital as a framework. Specifically, this paper explores how language development, behavioral norms, and engagement strategies that align with school and STEM-specific expectations increase students’ science capital. This analysis provides a more comprehensive understanding of how opportunity gaps in science education are created and perpetuated by acknowledging the broader sociocultural structures that influence STEM readiness. Based on a literature analysis, the findings show that STEM opportunities are shaped both inside and outside the schoolhouse. At the conclusion of this paper, policy recommendations are provided as a pathway to equity, aiming to address the systems that fail to leverage students’ cultural capital. 

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